The themes of this year’s Guardian and Observer charity appeal are youth homelessness and destitution among asylum seekers. These are overlapping causes which are both compelling and urgent, and which highlight the dire risk that austerity and the erosion of the social security safety net pose to some of society’s most vulnerable people.

I was one of the hidden homeless. I needed help to build my life

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It is extraordinary that in one of the world’s wealthiest countries we should be using the word “destitution” – with all its Victorian-era connotations of extreme hardship. But that is what is faced by so many of the people our appeal charities work with: a struggle to find shelter, warmth and food. Destitution describes people who “cannot meet their core material needs for basic physiological functioning from their own resources”.

Homelessness and destitution are increasingly visible and distressing to many of us. In England, the official data shows that all forms of homelessness have soared over the past few years, and some experts feel these figures underestimate the scale of the problem. The danger is that we become hardened to the enormity of the presence of rough sleepers huddled in shop doorways, in tents, or on night buses, and unwittingly neglectful of the tens of thousands of hidden homeless squatting on friends’ sofas.

For young people in the UK who find themselves without anywhere to live – perhaps they have left the family home after a relationship breakdown, or to escape abuse, or have left care – it is far too easy to become trapped in a chain of misfortune, with little help from the state. Sofa-surfing can lead to rough sleeping, and even more desperate ways to survive. This way of life is precarious, toxic and dangerous – it corrodes health, confidence and spirit, undermines friendships, damages job and education prospects, and arrests the transition to a more secure adulthood that luckier young people might take for granted.

Young people are at a higher risk of homelessness than adults, and when they find themselves in crisis are too often overlooked by hard-pressed council homelessness departments. Each year officials turn away tens of thousands of homeless young people because they do not qualify for assistance. The group with the highest chance of becoming destitute are men aged under 25. The stripping away of housing benefit entitlement for 18-21 year olds – one of a number of social security cuts affecting young people – will potentially put thousands in jeopardy.

Who are the charities we're supporting with our 2017 charity appeal?

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For some time, destitution has been a harsh reality for asylum seekers, migrants and refugees who are unable to access mainstream accommodation and support. Delays in the asylum and appeals process can leave them in limbo for years without money, shelter and advice. In the words of Adanech, a refugee forced to leave the house she was staying in after being refused asylum: “I stayed in a church in Sheffield. Then I stayed with friends in Oldham. Sometimes I stayed in the bus station. One time I stayed in a phone box. It was a bad time.” It was a charity that gave Adanech a place to live while she re-applied for asylum, a charity that ensured she was warm, safe and had food to eat.

The three fantastic charities we are supporting in this year’s appeal do vital work with young people and homeless asylum seekers to help them find safe and secure shelter and, then, to support them in establishing a more secure and independent future.

•Centrepoint is one of the UK’s best known youth homelessness charities. It provides a safe place to live, together with health, education and employment advice and support to more than 9,000 16-25 year olds each year. It has specialist services for single parents, care leavers, and young people escaping violence and abuse, and runs a confidence-building sports programme for homeless youngsters.

•Depaul UK runs the Nightstop network, a growing network of local services across the UK. It draws on a pool of volunteers who provide, often at short notice, a room for the night for homeless young people. Last year 600 vetted and trained volunteer hosts in the network’s 34 services provided a bed, a hot meal, a shower and a listening ear for 1,390 youngsters who otherwise might have been sleeping in unsafe places.

• The No Accommodation Network (Naccom) is a charity representing more than 40 charities and projects operating across the country. Naccom’s members specialise in providing shelter and support to destitute asylum seekers, refugees and migrants who have no recourse to public funds, either by running accommodation or setting up local volunteer hosting networks. Last year its members helped nearly 2,000 people. Naccom will use its share of the Guardian and Observer appeal donations to capacity-build the network and support frontline projects via a selective grants process that will be open to its full members.

The work these charities do is inspiring, but we should not forget that it happens against a backdrop of shrinking public services, a multitude of cuts to social security benefits, rising poverty, a drastic shortage of affordable housing, and hostel closures. The Guardian supports the vital work that volunteers and campaigners do to mitigate homelessness and destitution; we will also continue to report on the causes of homelessness and destitution, and urge policy change that will solve it.

Over the last two Guardian and Observer charity appeals, readers have shown exceptional generosity, compassion and solidarity by raising £2.6m and £1.75m respectively for a total of nine brilliant refugee charities. Over the next few weeks we will be showcasing this year’s charities through words, pictures and film. We hope we can persuade you once more to give generously. Help us break the chain of homelessness.